Category Archives: UK news

Giuffre lawyers seek details on Prince Andrew’s claimed inability to sweat

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Royal’s legal team say some of the disclosure requests in Virginia Giuffre lawsuit are ‘overbroad and oppressive’

Lawyers representing a woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual abuse are demanding that he hand over documents explaining why he does not sweat.

Virginia Giuffre’s legal team have requested a wealth of information from Andrew’s lawyers in response to his BBC Newsnight interview in 2019 when he said he visited a Pizza Express on the day of the claimed sexual encounter.

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Restored Big Ben to bong again at midnight to bring in new year

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Clock face revealed for first time since 2017 to show conservation work and restoration of original colour scheme

London’s public fireworks display may be cancelled but new year revellers in Westminster will be treated to a view of Big Ben’s newly painted dials as the clock bongs 12 times to mark the end of 2021.

The 96-metre clock tower above the Houses of Parliament, which houses the Great Bell, known as Big Ben, has been mostly hidden from view since a £79.7m conservation projection began four years ago.

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UK Covid case numbers hit another record high at more than 189,000

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Thursday’s figure is new daily record, with the number of people in hospital and deaths also rising

Confirmed daily Covid cases in the UK hit yet another high on Thursday, with 189,213 reported in the past 24 hours, while the number of people in hospital and deaths have also risen, data reveals.

On Wednesday 183,037 daily cases were reported for the whole of the UK – a record at the time – although this figure included a backlog in some nations from before and during the Christmas period, with five days of case data included for Northern Ireland. Thursday’s newly reported cases for Wales covered a two-day period.

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France suspends rule denying British residents of other EU countries transit

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Government says border officials will show tolerance toward those who had gone back to UK for Christmas

The French government has suspended a new rule that prevented British nationals legally resident in other EU countries from travelling through France to reach their homes, a move that caused confusion for thousands of travellers.

Border officials would “show tolerance” in order to “allow these nationals to transit through France to reach their residence in a country of the European Union after the Christmas and New Year period”, the interior ministry said in a statement. It came as Germany also relaxed rules for British visitors.

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Missing girl, 12, found 300 miles from Devon home after 10-day search

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Leona Peach found at address in Lincolnshire as 34-year-old man arrested on suspicion of kidnap

A 12-year-old girl who vanished from her home in Devon 10 days ago has been found safe and well almost 300 miles away in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Leona Peach, from Newton Abbot in south Devon, was last seen wearing flip-flops and a fur coat. Police were working on the theory that she might have travelled to north Devon where she has family connections.

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Speculation grows that Maxwell may try to cut a deal for reduced sentence

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Experts say any deal depends on whether US government believes it is worth investigating network that may have been involved

Now that the British former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted in her sex-trafficking trial, speculation is growing that she may try to cut a deal and become a government witness in any broader investigation into the elite social circle of her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell would be aiming for a reduced sentence by naming powerful names when it comes to others who may be involved in Epstein’s crimes.

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Inquests to be held into deaths of new mothers who died from herpes

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Coroner will investigate if Kim Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, contracted virus from surgeon during C-sections

A coroner will investigate the deaths of two women from herpes following childbirth, amid fears they contracted the virus from their surgeon.

Kim Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, died weeks apart after their babies were delivered by caesarean section at different hospitals in Kent.

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Guardian readers nominate their person of the year

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From the frontline of Covid to inspirational sports personalities, our worldwide audience name their choices

Guardian readers were asked to offer suggestions of who they would choose as their person of the year. Dozens of names were put forward – from scientists to sports personalities, from healthcare workers to climate activists.

And in a sign of the ongoing debate overgender issues, many readers also nominated the author JK Rowling, and online content creator Ranboo.

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How the pandemic transformed the world of work in 2021

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There were winners and losers as work patterns continued changing, with repercussions for city centres and society as a whole

Of all the predictions on your 2021 bingo card, who had employees being fined for going into the office? Workers in Wales now face that threat since the tightening of Covid regulations amid the spread of the Omicron variant, with a possible £60 penalty for failing to work from home.

That is just one of many examples of how the pandemic has transformed the world of work this year – and perhaps for ever – for city centre employers, their staff and the service industry that depends on them for trade.

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Fireworks could fizzle out as drones rise in popularity for new year

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Use of the devices has taken off in recent years, with apparent benefits including less distress to animals

As new year approaches, crowds around the world may be expecting whizzes and bangs to light up the sky. But the appeal of fireworks could fizzle out with the growing use of drones for light shows.

One notable example was the opening ceremony of this year’s Tokyo Olympics, while the Over the Top NYE event at Reunion Tower in Dallas is among those planning to combine fireworks and drones to welcome 2022.

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Covid live: France reports over 200,000 cases for second day in a row; eastern Europe’s death toll reaches 1 million

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French officials report over 206,000 cases; number of people to die from Covid in eastern Europe has reached 1 million people

Here’s a reminder of the news overnight that NHS England is looking to set up new “pop-up” Covid facilities. My colleagues Rowena Mason and Aubrey Allegretti report:

NHS England confirmed that it was creating new small-scale “Nightingale” facilities with up to 100 beds each at eight hospitals across the country. The health service said it had asked trusts to identify empty spaces to accommodate beds in places such as gyms or teaching areas. NHS managers are aiming to create up to 4,000 beds as surge capacity if needed, with work on the first tranche, in temporary structures, starting this week.

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Kindertransport Britons urge UK to reopen safe routes for refugees

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Alf Dubs, Stephanie Shirley and Erich Reich call for safe and legal paths for refugees in Europe to find safety

Surviving members of the Kindertransport have urged the government to reopen safe routes for refugees in Europe, especially children, trying to reach the UK or risk more tragedies occurring in the Channel.

Alf Dubs, Stephanie Shirley and Erich Reich, who all arrived in the UK between 1938 and 1939 as child refugees on the Kindertransport, an initiative set up to rescue nearly 10,000 Jewish child refugees before the second world war, said the UK was losing its moral authority in the world and urged the government to change tack.

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Elton John’s Your Song originally slated for Diana funeral

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Goodbye England’s Rose was included in 1997 service after dean of Westminster urged ‘boldness’

Westminster Abbey originally anticipated that Elton John would sing Your Song at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, rather than Goodbye England’s Rose, his reworking of Candle in the Wind, newly released records show.

An early order-of-service draft included the lyrics of Your Song, although it was mistitled Our Song. A second draft, sent for approval to Buckingham Palace by the dean of Westminster Abbey, Dr Wesley Carr, substituted Candle in the Wind.

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Britons with homes in EU told they can’t drive through France to get there

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Eurotunnel operator issues warning to UK nationals after update to Covid travel rules by French government

Eurotunnel is warning British citizens who live in the EU that they cannot travel through France by car from the UK due to new coronavirus restrictions imposed by the French government.

Getlink, the operator of the Channel rail link, issued an urgent warning on its website and Twitter page on Wednesday evening that appeared to confirm that the French government had changed its travel rules.

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Prince Andrew emerges with barely a mention in Ghislaine Maxwell trial

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Analysis: there was no cross-examination of the prince’s friend and his accuser was not called to give evidence

For the Duke of York, the fact he was barely mentioned in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial will have been an undoubted relief. With Maxwell declining the stand, no opening of her “little black book” of society contacts and, crucially, no sign of his accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew was a mere footnote in the New York proceedings.

Maxwell opted not to give evidence before being found guilty on five of six charges, saying there was “no need” because prosecutors had failed to prove their case, so the subject of Andrew was not raised with her via cross-examination.

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Covid live: UK cases hit new daily record of 183,037; Spain cuts isolation period to seven days

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Case figures include delayed data from Northern Ireland; Spain cuts quarantine despite record rise in cases

India has recorded another 9,195 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, according to recently released data from its health ministry.

A further 302 deaths were also recorded, bring the total death toll to 480,592.

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‘It won’t be easy’: the European exporters battling Brexit bureaucracy

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Paperwork and Covid culminate in another year of headaches for food and wine producers

For more than two decades, Unexport has shipped millions of kilograms of produce annually from farms in the southern Spanish region of Murcia to clients in the UK. Brexit has transformed the relatively straightforward process into a bureaucratic nightmare, yielding border waiting times of up to 10 hours for lorries laden with lemons and lettuce, said Domingo Llamas, its president.

Given the damage already inflicted by the UK’s exit from the bloc, plus the coronavirus pandemic, he sees the final implementation of thrice-delayed checks as just “one other thing” to manage.

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UK zoo helps lost Mexican fish live to see another Tequila sunrise

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Declared extinct in the wild in 2003, species has been reintroduced to its native river after being bred in Chester

A “charismatic little fish” declared extinct in the wild has been reintroduced to its native Mexico after being bred in an aquarium at Chester zoo.

The tequila fish (Zoogoneticus tequila), which grows to no bigger than 70mm long, disappeared from the wild in 2003 owing to the introduction of invasive, exotic fish species and water pollution.

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Reminded of the gap: why men still get paid more in UK public sector

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Analysis: academy and health service trusts responsible for big disparities as overall public pay inequality rises

It is clear that the public sector pay gap reported to government remains stubbornly high, at 15.5% versus 9% in the private sector. So where within public services is this happening, and why?

In 2018, the first year of compulsory gender pay gap reporting, women working in the public sector earned 86p for every £1 their male counterparts did. In 2021, that dropped to 84p.

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